Like Many New Yorkers, the Subway Is Just Waiting for Some Power

As if ConEd wasn’t under enough pressure with reports of Lower Manhattan residents foraging for cell phone charges and hitting the bottom of their canned tuna supply, at a Thursday night news conference Governor Cuomo and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota revealed that the MTA is essentially ready to restore subway service between Manhattan and Brooklyn, it’s just waiting for electricity. The Joralemon and Rutgers tubes, which carry the 4/5 and F lines, have been cleared and could be up and running within two hours, which would be a big step toward alleviating New York’s transportation woes. “We can’t run subway service down there because without electricity we can’t run the third rail,” said MTA Chairman Joe Lhota. “We’ve been spending a lot of time on the tunnels. We’re ready. We just need thejuice.”

Lower Manhattan is set to see light again by this weekend, but commuters should expect another messy trip on Friday — particularly because they’re losing one method of transportation. According to the New York Times, the Taxi Commission warned that due to the fuel shortage, there will be fewer cabs available onFriday.

On the bright side, the subway is gradually coming back on line. On Thursday some M train service was restored between Jamaica, Queens, and 34th Street in Manhattan. Partial service was also restored on the 7 train from Main Street in Flushing to 74th Street in Jackson Heights, which will allow commuters in Queens to transfer to the F and M trains to continue to Manhattan. For those curious about what exactly clearing a subway tunnel entails, the MTA released a video of workers pumping disgusting flood water from the South Ferrystation.

Cuomo noted that while things are slowly improving for New Yorkers, the biggest question is still, “I have power or I don’t have power.” He said he believes the utility companies are “working very hard to restore the power,” but in case they aren’t, he reminded them of the stakes. “We don’t do business with a utility company on a handshake,” said Cuomo. “This is going to be a test of their performance and I want them to knowthat.”

Update: A ConEd spokesperson told Bloomberg Radio early Friday morning that power will be restored to all of Manhattantoday.

Update 2: Not so fast: ConEd corrected its own spokesperson, saying it stands by the Saturday estimate of full power restoration for Manhattan. The times reports ConEd will restore power to the southeastern-most portion of Manhattan by today (near the Brooklyn Bridge). It’s not yet clear how this will affect the subway service in the area.

#BREAKING: I’m told the entire @BPDAlerts Emergency Response Team has resigned from the team, a total of 57 officers, as a show of support for the officers who are suspended without pay after shoving Martin Gugino, 75. They are still employed, but no longer on ERT. @news4buffalo

In case you were wondering about the unmarked federal agents dotting Washington

Few sights from the nation’s protests in recent days have seemed more dystopian than the appearance of rows of heavily armed riot police around Washington, D.C., in drab military-style uniforms with no insignia, identifying emblems or names badges. Many of the apparently federal agents have refused to identify which agency they work for. “Tell us who you are, identify yourselves!” protesters demanded, as they stared down the helmeted, sunglass-wearing mostly white men outside the White House. Eagle-eyed protesters have identified some of them as belonging to Bureau of Prisons’ riot police units from Texas, but others remain a mystery.

The images of such heavily armed, military-style men in America’s capital are disconcerting, in part, because absent identifying signs of actual authority the rows of federal officers appear all-but indistinguishable from the open-carrying, white militia members cos-playing as survivalists who have gathered in other recent protests against pandemic stay-at-home orders. Some protesters have compared the anonymous armed officers to Russia’s “Little Green Men,” the soldiers-dressed-up-as-civilians who invaded and occupied western Ukraine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday demanding that federal officers identify themselves and their agency.

To understand the police forces ringing Trump and the White House it helps to understand the dense and not-entirely-sensical thicket of agencies that make up the nation’s civilian federal law enforcement. With little public attention, notice and amid historically lax oversight, those ranks have surged since 9/11—growing by roughly 2,500 officers annually every year since 2000. To put it another way: Every year since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government has added to its policing ranks a force larger than the entire Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).